Enjoying our usual family day out on the boat yesterday, I was very surprised to learn from the Police that Sea urchins (RIzzi) are now protected by a legal notice issued in the previous week or two.As usual, when we're all there on the boat, 'The Baldacchino clan' indulge in their favorite dish, Spaghetti Rizzi - with the rizzi caught fresh, split in 2, and the ladies painstakingly remove the orange bits from inside. This could not happen yesterday After my oldest son, son in law(to be) and myself spent over an hour collecting our spiked delicacies from 4 meters deep, we proceeded to make our way back to The Gaffer. Almost immediately, we were approached by a Police rubber dingy. The Police kindly asked to inspect the bags we had on our small tender dingy. The Police informed us that collecting Sea Urchins was against the law, as they are now protected by a legal notice. I was utterly shocked, and the police empatised with my disbelief as they only got to know about the legal notice last week!!!. Needless to say, we were instructed to throw all the Sea urchins back into the sea (we had about 14 dozen!!!). Is anybody here aware of this legal notice!!!!

Well we can expect more and more of these legal notices to crop up, which is why i keep bothering people about Catch and release, we need to get used to it, and we need to show the authorities that, as sports fishermen we are responsible with our catches and they should not be targeting us!

on a lighter note ... Joe ... did you really need to collect 4 dozen sea Urchins for a few plates of pasta?

Regulation (EU) No 579/2011 of 8 June 2011amending Council Regulation (EC) NO 850/98 for theconservation of fishery resources through the technicalmeasures for the protection of juveniles of marineorganisms and Council Regulation (EC) No 1288/2009establishing transitional technical measures from 1January 2010 to 30 June 2011

notice the use of the preposition 'of'....... protection of juveniles of marineorganisms........ which is being used as a function word to indicate something from which a person or thing is delivered.

Thus if i am interpreting the law correctly....... its not the sea urchin that is protected but the roe within it...... which further implies that the whole sea urchin must be protected as if it is damaged, the roe inside is killed......

notice the use of the preposition 'of'....... protection of juveniles of marineorganisms........ which is being used as a function word to indicate something from which a person or thing is delivered.

Thus if i am interpreting the law correctly....... its not the sea urchin that is protected but the roe within it...... which further implies that the whole sea urchin must be protected as if it is damaged, the roe inside is killed......

if they apply this law to the sea urchin than no one can catch a fish because it might have eggs in it

Jekk mhix ligi, invenzjoni ohra din.I gave up guys with the authorities, waste of time, unprofessional, abusers.I do what I deem right, and if someone else beleives it is not, prosectue me and then we see in court.

I know nothing about such law, and I do not intend to check, since that i would invest useless time and money.

Emic when someone gives me info which I need, I always double check if law exists. That was the case, meaning that the authority who told you such words, should not read what others say, but should read the law, and interpret accordingly. Sometimes there are stupid lazy individuals that wait for others to read, and they only say what other's (superiors) tel them to do.